Stormwater Fees Now in Question

A Montgomery County circuit judge has declared the county’s stormwater
management fee invalid, saying it violates a Maryland state law passed
earlier this year. The law was intended to reform the controversial
environmental charge.

The
ruling only applies to Montgomery, for now. Yet it’s creating anxiety
in Baltimore communities that still levy such fees to pay for reducing
the polluted runoff that fouls local streams and the Chesapeake Bay.

“My
concern is that we may be in a similar situation,” said Vincent J.
Gardina, director of environmental protection and sustainability in
Baltimore County.

Gardina
and officials in Baltimore city and Howard counties all said they or
their lawyers are reviewing the Montgomery decision to see if it raises
questions about their own fees.

Legal
inquiries began after the owner of a 34-acre commercial development in
Gaithersburg had been issued an $11,000 stormwater fee.

He,
in turn, sued Montgomery County, contending that he shouldn’t have to
pay anything, because he had put in ponds that collect all of the runoff
from his property and neighboring tracts. The judge agreed, saying the
fee should be limited to what it costs the county to treat runoff from
the owner’s property.

In many ways, we are fortunate that, in our chosen profession, we are able to help people when certain disasters occur: the tornadoes in Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Georgia, the flooding in Louisiana, the snows in the northeastern part of the country, the rain in California, and the snow in Colorado....

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